Paul Ryan Backs President Obama's Sanctions Over Alleged Russian Hacks

House Speaker Paul Ryan issued a statement on Thursday backing President Barack Obama’s new sanctions against Russia.

Ryan’s support came shortly after news broke that Obama had issued an executive order against nine Russian “entities and individuals” based on accusations that Russia interfered in the recent U.S. elections.

“While today’ action by the administration is overdue, it is an appropriate way to end eight years of failed policy with Russia,” Ryan said. “And it serves as a prime example of this administration’s ineffective foreign policy that has left America weaker in the eyes of the world.”

Ryan also stated, “Russia does not share America’s interests. In fact, it has consistently sought to undermine them, sowing dangerous instability around the world.”

The sanctions outline economic penalties for the nine individuals and organizations allegedly involved in “tampering with, altering, or causing a misappropriation of information with the purpose or effect of interfering with or undermining election processes or institutions.”

However, there is no proof that the Russian government was involved to this effect.

In a statement Thursday, Obama said the nine entities are the “GRU and the FSB, two Russian intelligence services; four individual officers of the GRU; and three companies that provided material support to the GRU’s cyber operations.”

While the sanctions do not include Russian President Vladimir Putin, Obama suggested Putin had knowledge of the hacks because “these data theft and disclosure activities could only have been directed by the highest levels of the Russian government.”

While the CIA “concluded in a secret assessment that Russia intervened in the 2016 election to help Donald Trump win the presidency, rather than just to undermine confidence in the U.S. electoral system,” there has been disagreement and inconsistencies with their findings.

In fact, the FBI disagreed with several of the CIA’s conclusions. The Hill reported, [w]hile lawmakers were seemingly united on the need to present a strong bipartisan response, the FBI and CIA gave lawmakers differing accounts on Russia’s motives, according to The Post.”

Further, Breitbart Senior Editor-at-Large Joel B. Pollak noted that while “Russians may have helped hack of the Democratic National Committee emails, as well as (possibly) the emails of Hillary Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta… There is zero evidence Russian hackers messed with voting.”